In a pulse welding process where a welding wire is directed through the commonly used contact tip of a welding gun as the tip is subjected to a pulsed current signal, it is advantageous to tailor the background current and peak current to create a ball and to propel the ball at a specific time toward the workpiece. It has been found that the creation of the molten metal ball on the end of the advancing electrode depends on the spacing between the workpiece and the actual contact point of the wire with the contact tip. This distance between the contact point and the workpiece should remain coordinated with the profile of the pulse current. In this manner, the melting of the ball and the propelling of the ball are timed with the actual pulses of the electric current. Such coordination maintains the stability of the arc and assures the quality of the welding process.
In other welding processes, such as short arc or spray MIG welding, the coordination of the ball and propelling force with the waveform profile is not critical. In these processes, conventional tips are used satisfactorily with both iron and aluminum. In some instances, this standard short tip when not used for MIG welding included a ceramic block spring biased into the passageway to engage the wire and force the wire against the passage. Such spring biased ceramic block in a short tip was only for the purpose of ensuring contact. Thus, its expense was not justified and it was not accepted practice.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional, traditional, and proposed approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems and methods with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.